Fast-forward polymer

Adam Thomas Rees’ video of his cane-covered polymer foxes gives you a look at how he creates his sculptures (he fires the bases first) and may make you consider working on a turntable (it looks so efficient).

This Utah artist doesn’t reveal how long it took him to shoot these fast forward videos. You’ll be surprised at how he conditions clay and this episode gives you some idea of the size of his original canes. Additional clips on his YouTube page show other animal sculptures in process.

You may want to set aside some time to dig deeper into these links that were sent in by Iris Mishly.

This is unbelievable, made me feel I’m working with microscopic canes 🙂
I specifically liked the fact that his cane slices are quite thick so he can “shave” them after completing the piece without the fear of shaving all the image off.

Very enlightening video. Beautiful work, Adam, and what a generous fellow you are to share all that information, too.

The video also made me realize why I am not and never will be a caner. I don’t have that much clay in my whole studio… and can’t imagine making dozens of canes for one project… that I a have zero patience. My hat is off to Adam and all of you who do, though. Very, very impressive.

Incredible! I had seen the polar bear and the squishing tool and that oven when you posted the Super Size Polymer episode. A ton of work goes into the whole thing before he even starts to put the cane slices on. My 8 year old grandson, somewhat of a sculptor himself, loves the clay squisher!

Wow! Fascinating the way he works. I especially love the big press system he starts with for conditioning huge amounts of clay. Very inventive. And I love that he doesn’t use the pasta machine at all.
Beautiful sculptures.

Never would have thought of using polymer clay on such a large scale project. I love the idea of using a turntable- but don’t know where I’d find one appropriate for my work table. I usually work on a sheet of wax paper- it’s also really easy to spin so you can work from different angles/in different areas.

How cool is that!? I’m so jealous of how easy he makes it look. I’ve tried a million times to make the very simplest canes & for the life of me, I can’t do it. I guess creating things out of .polymer clay is kinda like singing, you have to have SOME natural talent & sadly I don’t.